Lots of updates and a very solid pass!

I'm sorry for the lack of posting lately... Life has been tremendously busy. We pulled George out of his in home care situation and hired a full time nanny to care for him at home. George just wasn't coping with all the bugs he was picking up and it was making life extremely distressing for all of us. Hiring our nanny has been the best thing we've done as George has been SO well and so settled since she started. It's taken so much stress out of our lives too. Definitely the right choice. George is 13.5 months at the time of writing this blog post.

We have very good news too- that George has passed pumpkin- butternut, buttercup and crown pumpkin are all safe for him! He is thoroughly enjoying pumpkin twice or three times a day. We have roasted it and cut it into bite sized pieces so he can feed himself. Our nanny Fiona was clever and made little puff like things with pumpkin and neocate which turned kind of tacky when baked. These provided a new texture for George which is really important, so that he learns to bite and chew properly.

We trialed parsnip but only got to day 4 when we pulled it. George had extreme sleeplessness and was very very unsettled. We decided it wasn't worth it for parsnip, which isn't a terribly useful veggie. I waited until he settled back down and we went straight into the next food trial which was cauliflower. George enjoyed cauliflower and has been eating it steamed and roasted. He likes holding it in his hands and biting bits off. 

George's weight is no longer a worry at all either. He's been having fortnightly checks at Plunket and is a hefty 10.85kgs now. He is doing really well! So well that we are going to try cutting down on the night time bottles and talk to our dietitian Linda about how much neocate he needs in a day now we have calories coming in from pumpkin too. Such a relief not to worry about that!

Next up is a mini trial. We need to see if George will tolerate and accept the next stage of neocate, the 12m+ one. It comes in vanilla and unflavoured so we shall try both and see which one George likes best. 

After that we will trial a fruit. Apples are first on the list so we will give that a go. George has eaten apples in the past but they flared his skin so we stopped them. This was right around the time we started solids though, so hopefully his gut has matured enough to accept them now.

One thing I'll never get used to is the horrible wait after trailing a new food... Those first 4 days are terrifying for me. I hover over my phone anxiously waiting/hoping not to hear from our nanny. We do trial for the first time on a Saturday morning but in my experience reactions (well, acute ones) happen after a couple of exposures. Luckily this hasn't happened for months now!!! 

It's so good to share such good news on this blog. I think back to the two months George spent solely on formula when we pulled all foods from his diet to let his gut rest. It was such a worrying time, but it was the best thing we did. It was the right choice to start again. Onwards and upwards from here!